Call it a successful mid-career switch if you will – French transplant Elodie Bellegarde was working in a Savile Row tailoring house, but found herself craving creative stimulation. She went back to school to take up a new discipline – culinary arts – and eventually settled in Singapore with her new calling. These days, Bellegarde’s gone from amateur cook to cookbook author (Kitchen Stories, co-written with pastry chef Denise Hung), and does food styling and photography for a diverse and impressive roster of clients such as Hermes, Singapore Airlines and Cadbury. Up next: a collaboration with a Japan-based start-up that specialises in environmental sustainability, a cause Bellegarde believes in strongly.
TASTE
The word often elicits a more divisive
reaction in fashion than in food, in part because its relationship with the
former is more traditionally tied to aesthetics. Is something good, bad or – an
increasingly occurring category when it comes to dressing – good-bad? Somehow,
the answer is a lot easier to figure out when discussing brunch instead of,
say, designer logo tees or balmain. (and it’s hard to call a dish good-bad;
even detractors of in-n-out have to admit that those animal-style burgers are
passable. Also, we’ll take them over starving.)
Yet, visual flair and creative thinking
are becoming more and more part of the everyday dining lexicon. The camera eats
first. Plating is now an art form. Earlier this year, monocle – arbiter of
culture and taste – launched a drinking & dining directory. The next 16
pages have nothing to do with that last point.
What they do have: people in or from
singapore who are bridging the world of fashion and design with what we eat and
drink. Stylists who approach a gastronomical feast with the same eye that we do
a new runway season. The telegenic it girl straddling home cooking and recipe
development with illustration, creative direction and public appearances. The
bagaholicboys of food. And that’s just an appetiser to what we’ve cooked up
(aren’t culinary-related puns so good-bad?).
They’re the folks who make the idea of
taste in food no longer simply about its sensorial effects on our tongues. And
if that gets your taste buds going, we’ve got more helpings on www.femalemag.com.sg. – nl
Text Keng Yang Shuen & Charlene Fang Photography Vee Chin & Zaphs Zhang Art Direction & Styling Jonathan Chia & Adeline Eng Hair & Makeup Sha Shamsi, using Nars & Ouai & Benedict Choo, using Urban Decay & Kevin.Murphy
